Thursday, January 31, 2013

OVERTORTURE

They don´t like it to be
called supergroup, they are not another band from Sweden, that cares about
local traditions too much, they profits from different musical backgrounds and
have an awesome album ready for you. This is OVERTORTURE – listen to it and feel
the pain!

Mazeltov to a wicked album,
I suppose you are curious like a bow about the reactions of the crowd out there
to the new album, right?

Joel Fornbrant: Thank you! As of answering this interview, the album
release is only a few days away, and it's going to be very exciting to hear
people's opinion on it. All the reactions we have had so far, from reviewers
and people who've heard the album early, have believe it or not been positive.
I'm sure there will be a couple of guys who hate the album, but so far it's
been great reactions which of course feels awesome.

The press gives you
(partially) the imprint of a super group. What’s your opinion of that?

Joel Fornbrant: I personally don't like that term. Super groups are
usually boring as hell. Also, we are not THAT recognizable, even though some of
us have played in bands that are well known in the scene. Sure, we're no
newcomers either, but I'd much rather see us as just a regular band.

Why is the band walking on
planet earth, and where did find each other?

Magnus Martinsson: It all started in the
beginning of 2011 when I was home sick for a long time, recovering from fatigue
syndrome. When I started to get better I got extremely creative and riffs,
ideas and songs started pouring out of my hands like crazy. But it didn’t
really fit GRAVE, the band I played in at the time, so the thought of a new
band was born. When I felt that I had some good tracks I sent them to Fredrik
Widigs to see if he wanted to make reality of my ideas and it didn’t take long before
he said yes…. Shortly after that I contacted Jonas Torndal that joined shortly
after Fredrik. But we needed a singer.

One day at work I listened
to a lot of different bands and came across COLDWORKER, and I was really blown
away by the vocals! Exactly what I wanted for this band! So I took a real
longshot and sent an email to the band’s email address asking for Joel’s
contact info. We clicked right away and Joel immediately started writing lyrics
for the tracks I sent him, and In October 2011 we layed down vocals on several
demo tracks.. And that’s pretty much how it all started.

After this my old friend
Andreas Hemmander joined shortly before the recording of the album, and Jonas
quit in November 2012 and was replaced by Joakim Antman.

Who are the guys who are
responsible for this new bloody Swedish butchery?

Magnus Martinsson: Just five Swedish guys born
in the good old 80s who loves the art of Death Metal! We have all played music
since we were teens and have played/plays in some known (and unknown haha)
death metal bands like Grave, Coldworker, Demonical and Witchery prior to
founding Overtorture.

Is it more than just a
pastime?

Magnus Martinsson:Music is a way of life and a
part of you, so it’s definitely more than just a pastime, but we’ll probably
never be able to live and support our families by playing the music we love.
But if we could do this fulltime we would!Who wouldn’t… ;)

Tell me about the album. And
are you releasing it just on a German label?Is it because we have the biggest and best scene here in good old
Germoney?

Joel Fornbrant: Overtorture was founded with the sole intention of
only releasing music on German labels. No, just kidding, but you Germans have a
great appreciation for most things metal so naturally a lot of the interest in
the band has come from there. Swedish labels are few, and the next natural step
is of course Germany. I'm very happy with Apostasy releasing our first album,
and hopefully this opens up a lot of opportunities for us to play gigs on their
home turf.

You have produced it by
yourself.So you don ‘t like it when
other degenerated brains fudge in your work, eh?

Magnus Martinsson: Haha!.. Basically we decided
to do it this way because we realized that we had all the tools and equipment
to do it by ourselves, so we wanted to try it out. It was actually never a
question of doing it any other way when I think back, and it turned out very
well! It’s a more relaxed way to record than in a studio you pay per hour, and
cheaper *blink*.

Ola Englund (Six Feet Under)
is a good friend of ours, and we really like his work! So we knew we’d be in
safe hands when choosing him for mix and mastering, and we have many common
musical references so we were on the same page from the start concerning the
sound. We wanted to keep it raw with a lot of punch, and it really turned out
great!

What about the “fun –
factor” while the songwriting, rehearsing and recording is going on? Was it all
serene and relaxed? Anyway, I can’t hear any pressure and cramped arses.

Magnus Martinsson: You won’t find any cramped
arses even how deep into them you look haha… We’re all relaxed and easy going
guys and we have fun when rehearsing etc. These tracks are very fun to play and
they’re damn heavy live! So can’t wait until we hit the stage! During a normal
rehearsal we drink a few beers, crank our amps and blast away.. But if someone
does any mistakes I kick their balls so they won’t do it again… Hahaha.. Just
kidding.

“At the end the dead await,”
mhm not exactly Nobel Prize wisdom. What about the album title and the song?

Joel Fornbrant: Wisdom is boring and has no place on a death metal
album. The song is about the murdered getting revenge on their killers in the
afterlife. How's that for an intellectual subject? We thought it had a nice
“albumy” ring to it, so it became the record title as well. And it also made
for a good cover.

What is the album mostly
about?Are you fulfilling typical
stereotypes, maybe you write lyrics because you just need them?Is blood and pus flowing over the dance floor?
Or is it more?

Joel Fornbrant: I like writing lyrics, so they are there is
definitely more effort behind them than just having some cool words to grunt
along to the songs with. I don't try to be overly smart with them though, so
they deal with the typical death metal topics, like murder, insanity and
general death and mayhem. I threw in a couple of science fiction-type lyrics as
well, because that's always fun. I try to write them in a coherent way, so they
fit together despite dealing with different subjects.

Musically, is it classic
Swedish evils meet the sun-drenched Florida?

Joel Fornbrant: Yes, it's a little bit of both I guess, like wearing
shorts and sandals to your Dismember shirt and leather jacket. We like all
kinds of death metal which shows in the songs. And we should not forget good
ol' England either, because Bolt Thrower is of course a big influence.

Is Overtorture a democratic
construct? I mean with all the experience you guys have, no one can move in the
foreground without getting a black eye.

Magnus Martinsson: It’s pretty much democraticJ.. I’m taking care of the most of the daily “business”
and run every important thing by the rest of the guys.. But some less important
things I take the decision by my own. It’s a danger if everyone would be involved
and have a saying in exactly everything, then you wouldn’t get anything done. But
we listen to each other and we mostly have the same view on things.

Can you still learn from
each other, or is this point already overstepped?

Magnus Martinsson : You never stop learning and
especially if/when you play someone else’s riffs for example, because we all
have our own style of playing and writing stuff, so there’s always something
you can learn from each other I think.

As for the experience of
Overtorture members being other bands, is this a bonus, or is it sometimes a
challenge for pig heads?

Joel Fornbrant: I think it's mostly good, since everyone can use
their experience do bring something different to the table. It will hopefully
contribute to creating a unique synergy of ideas. All bands do things a little
bit differently, but I don't think this has presented any difficulties for
Overtorture so far. I think we are lucky to not have any really pig-headed
people in the band!

Are the different styles you
come from, or still play, an advantage for the band?

Joel Fornbrant: As I said in the above answer, it's probably an
advantage of having everyone in the band adding their perspective to the music
and ideally creating something that feels uniquely Overtorture. This will
perhaps come more actively into play later in the band's career rather than
now, since all the songs on this album were already written before we had a
full line-up. But I'm very excited to see what we can come up with as a full
band in the future!

With a well-stocked back
catalog it is much easier for a real newcomer like you guys, right?

Joel Fornbrant: Of course. When you come from bands that have
already made some impact it's much easier to raise eyebrows and get people
interested in a new band. The downside to this is that everyone has very high
expectations from the start, so you have a lot to live up to. I must note
though that we are very far from a level where we can just be lazy, pick and
choose among gigs and have all sorts of money thrown our way on a regular
basis. We still have to work hard to get anywhere.

And another band from
Sweden! Your scene must be bigger than ever. And there are only musicians, no
fans who don´t play an instrument … or am I wrong. I mean, when you play shows,
you play in front of your fellow musicians! That must be scary!

Joel Fornbrant: Haha! You are correct, there are shitloads of bands
from here, so playing in a band certainly isn't as special as it used to be.
There are people who just dig the music without playing it though, even if it's
hard to believe. The scene is also very concentrated to the bigger cities like
Stockholm and Gothenburg. In Örebro were I live there are maybe five bands
total in the history of death metal... But yes, some gigs have A LOT of
musicians and scene people in the crowd. But it's fun to play “spot the
semi-celebrity” when you're at shows, so it's all good.

As your first bass player
left the band, you had a replacement very quick. Is this a positive thing?

Magnus Martinsson:: It’s of course always sad
when people leave, but we’re still friends with Jonas, no hard feelings there..
So this has been a very positive change, we got to know a new great guy and
musician namely Joakim Antman who’s been a great addition to the band.

As the death metal plague
flooded the putrid world in the end 80s, you were all still kids. What was it
that brought you to the point where you are today?

Joel Fornbrant: I discovered death metal in the mid- to late
nineties, when the scene was pretty much dead. There was I and maybe two other
guys in my town who liked that kind of music, so we started playing together
and a few years down the line peoples interest in this kind of music started
coming back, which was great. But when I started listening to it, it absolutely
felt shitty to have missed the glory days of death metal.

Thx to have you here on
Fatalgrind, last spot is yours!

Thanks for the interview! Overtorture is releasing its
crushing debut album, “At the End the Dead Await”, January 25th on
Apostasy Records. Be sure to pick it up! Check out our facebook page or
overtorture.se for more info on the band and hopefully we'll see you on the
road in the future! Cheers!

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